15 Reasons Why Mice Are Important?

Argh! You must have exclaimed with a disgusting expression while witnessing a mouse under the couch. But have you pondered over the significant role this unsung hero performs to maintain our ecosystem? And don’t tag this little rodent with just the dissection of it by the Medical students. In fact, its part in our life is more important than this. They are contributors to our environment in their own way.

This article will cover 15 reasons why mice are important in our Earth. It will be a homage to this little, adaptable and beneficial creature.

15 Benefits Of Mice For The Humans And The Environment

Mice have been crucial in curbing the diseases as the scientists have put all their energies into examining this underestimated being. As their genes are similar to ours, it has opened the vast delve into the study of genetic transformation. Further, they fertilize the soil making the plants grow.

This article will cover 15 reasons why mice are important on our planet. It will open your eyes to the real worth of this adventurous creature.

1. Mice Regulate Food Chain

Mice are omnivores that means they can feed on both plants and animals. Thus, the carnivores are dependent on the mice to survive. Mice are morsels of all sizes and species of carnivores ranging from hawks and owls to snakes and weasels. Well, some humans also relish the mice. In China, mice are the favorite dish.

2. Mice Disperse Seeds

As small rodents, mice living in tropical forests play a crucial role in spreading the wild seeds. These seeds, later on, generate and grow into new plants under conducive conditions. The mice hoard the seeds to eat them later. It results in the germination of seeds.

It occurs near the human habitat as well. Mice break in your home and ‘swindle’ some seeds and hide them someplace for future consumption. These seeds grow into crops when they are left uneaten by the mice.

3. Mice Invigorate The Soil

The mice dig burrows and tunnels under the ground to find their hiding place especially when they are hibernating during the winter season. This process adopted by mice leads to the aeration of the soil. The soil is toppled when these burrows are being dug. In this way, the top layer is composed of organic substance, and the deep layers blend. It results in the growth of plants.

4. Mice Help In Plant Growth

Mice play a significant part in the growth of plants too. The digging of the tunnels leads to the fertilization of the soil. Carbon, which is crucial for the germination of plants, is buried for better soaking by the roots of plants.

Water absorbs deep into the soil through the tunnels instead of existing on the surface of the ground. The penetrating water passes on oxygen through layers of the dregs. The soil is invigorated that results in the development of the roots of the plants.

Related Video – Animal Facts – Mouse

5. Mice Disperse Fungi

Mice are helpful in the spread of fungi leading to the germination of plants. Plants soil fungi while the fungi in turn help plants to develop. The nutrition of the plants is provided by fungi. Whereas plants supply the energy to the fungus that the latter requires for germination.

Mice are very crucial agents in this mutual connection between plants and organisms. They collect and keep mushrooms. It consequently leads to the organization of the spores in their dispersion. Ultimately, a new thick forest grows from this procedure.

6. Mice Are Similar To The Humans

Humans and mice may not be similar in appearance and size, but both species are mammals and are genetically alike. It means humans grow in the same way from eggs and sperms, and have similar kinds of organs. Moreover, our circulatory, digestive, reproductive, and nervous systems are the same. It helps the scientists to study the mice to gather information about their growth and functions in humans.

7. Mice Are Beneficial In Scientific Tests

The sameness between mice and human beings helps scientists to use mice for medical research and testing. It has led to the remedies of several diseases. Mice are used for the drug test before applying to humans. The medicines that have been found worthwhile in the treatment of ill mice have been permitted to be applied to humans.

8. Mice Help In Studying Diseases

Mice are immensely beneficial for studying complex diseases. The research on them is useful because the genes responsible for such diseases as hypertension cancer and diabetes are similar between mice and humans. This genetic similarity also alludes to the discovery that both share hereditary traits. It includes physical features such as hair color and vulnerability to the diseases like a heart attacks.

9. Mice Are Helpful In Research

The house mouse has become the primary mammalian model for genetic study over the past century. In the early period, scientists evolved mouse models by breeding particular mice to germinate offspring with specific wanted features. Now the scientists make use of mice to revitalize genetic disorders. It helped them in their study in their growth and conduct new test therapies.

The genome sequence of the mouse was produced in December 2002. The genome of a mouse is roughly around 3,500 million base pairs in length and is composed of over 23, 000 protein-coding genes.

10. Mice Genome Is Easy To Handle

It is extremely easy to control the genome of a mouse. It can be done by building or getting rid of a gene to better comprehend its function in the body. This process produces a strong tool for modeling particular ailments when a diminished gene is known to perform a part in the disease.

11. Mice Allow Genetically Identical Strains

Mice can be inherited to produce genetically identical strains. This alikeness makes sure the more exact and repeatable experiments. Hybrid mice are produced from the blend of the mice of two inborn strains together. The subsequent F1 hybrids are the same in terms of genes because at each gene they all have both alleles from the two inbred parents.

12. Mice Multiplication Helpful to Research

Mice multiply swiftly as they can reproduce as often as every three weeks. It helps the scientists a great deal to have a research on them. The generation time of a mouse is short. It is around 10 weeks. It means that observation of several generations can be done at once. The mouse’s life period is short. A single mouse’s year is equal to about 30 years of humans. It makes scientists gauge easily the impacts of ageing.

13. Mice Wide Availability Beneficial For Study

Mice are quite a low cost that enables the scientists to have research on them. They are available easily as they can be found in every part of the world. Moreover, it is not difficult to transport them due to their size.

14. Mice Are Adaptable To The Environment

Mice are able to survive in a broad range of natural environments. The house mouse has been called a “mammalian weed” because of its adaptability to different habitats. It has the vast dispersal on the earth after human beings. It dwells in cold islands near Antarctica, tropical isles in the Caribbean, dry deserts, and salt regions.

15. Mice As Strong Mythological And Fictitious Creatures

Mice have varied meanings in mythology and folklore. They have a powerful connection to the Earth. It is so because of their delight in digging holes and hiding underground. On the contrary, the mouse also stands for disease, death, and destruction. In the modern visual art of animated movies, the mice appear as the leading and commanding figures. You must have remembered “Tom and Jerry”, “Mickey Mouse”, and “Stuart Little.”

The Importance Of Mice – Conclusion      

Nature has its own laws and ways. Even a petty creature like a mouse is essential for the survival of the Earth. It represents rebirth and reconstruction. Granted it is an unhygienic being. But the function it performs in the scheme of things is not filthy at all.  

References

• https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/why-use-the-mouse-in-research
• https://www.jax.org/why-the-mouse/model